Page 52 of The Billionaire and His Forever

In the background, I hear sniffling. My heart aches. “Jude, sweetie, is that you?”

Amanda turns and looks off screen. She quietly encourages Jude to take the phone, and after a minute, she finally does. Part of Jude’s face comes into view, just the top of her head, but even from this angle I can tell she’s a mess.

“Oh, Jude.” The words tumble out of my mouth like a sigh. “I’m so sorry I’m not there.”

Jude sniffs in response, her breathing jagged, still too emotionally distraught to speak.

“You know I would do anything to be back home, right? But I can’t. Not yet.”

There’s a long silence and I decide to not fill it up. Jude is probably terrified, and hearing me say it’s going to be okay is a waste of breath when it doesn’t feel like it ever will be.

“I just want you to know that it’s okay to be upset right now,” I tell her. “It’s okay to be mad or scared or confused, or whatever else. Because this is really hard. It really sucks.”

“But I want to see you. And I want to see my mom. Daddy said she’s still sick, even though she’s awake. He said she…she thinks you tried to hurt her. But I know you didn’t. She’s just confused,” Jude chokes out between sobs, still not looking into the camera.

“Oh, sweetie.” This weighs so heavy on me, I can feel it in my chest. “I know this is a lot to put on you, and you’ve been so strong. But it’s going to be okay. The police are going to figure it all out soon, and your dad’s lawyers are going to help them, and your mom’s going to get better and you’re going to see her soon, too. Okay? And in the meantime, I’m living my best life down here in New York. I’m getting lots of ideas for fun things we can do the next time we’re all here together.”

“Okay.” Jude wipes her nose and finally centers the camera so I can see her whole face. “I miss you so much.”

“I miss you, too. So, so much.” Sadness punches me in the gut as soon as I say the words. All I feel is overpowering grief. I can only imagine how Jude feels. “But I’ll be back before you know it. The police just made a mistake about me, because your mom…like you said, she’s confused, and now it has to get fixed.”

Please God, let this get fixed. And soon. Please, let me get back to my people.

“I love you, Jude. More than all the stars in the sky. We’re all going to be together again soon, and you can call me any time. In fact, I’m so bored all by myself here that you’d be doing me a huge favor. So can you please do that for me? Call me a lot.”

Jude nods, looking a little better. “Okay. Whenever I want?”

“Of course. And I need you to be good for Amanda, too.”

But Jude isn’t listening anymore. She’s shouting over her shoulder, “Dad! Abbie said I can call her whenever I want to!”

Immediately, my heart races. I miss Graham so much it hurts. We were together just yesterday, but it already feels like it’s been an eternity since I saw him or felt his touch.

“Is that Abbie, love?” His deep, lilting voice sinks straight to my core.He takes the phone from Jude and says, “Give us a few minutes, please, will you?”

“Sure thing,” Amanda’s voice says in the background. “We’ll be in the living room.”

“Bye, Abbie!” Jude says. Graham turns the phone to face her so she can wave to me. “I love you and I miss you and I’ll be good for Amanda. And I’ll call you all the time, okay?”

“Promise?” I say.

“Promise!”

I see Jude walk away and then the phone jostles and I’m suddenly face to face with Graham. Calm settles over me for the first time since he left New York.

“God, I miss you.” He takes a breath. “It’s not right, being so far from you.”

“I hate this,” is all I can say. I’m trying so hard not to crack, not to cry.

“I know, love. But I spoke with the private investigator this morning and I wanted to keep you updated on what he’s found so far. It appears…that Natasha has been very busy.”

Fear pumps my heart harder. The PI was supposed to be working in conjunction with the lawyers to clear my name. What the hell has Natasha been up to? “What do you mean,busy? Like, busy beyond accusing me of murder?”

Graham looks over his shoulder before continuing and then lowers his voice. “It looks like she stole some money from my account. Siphoned off two million dollars.”

My jaw drops. I don’t know what horror I expected, but it wasn’t that. “Are you serious? But how—why would she think she could get away with that? Wouldn’t she know she’d get caught? Was she expecting you to just let her keep it?”

“I don’t know.” His face sours. “We’re still trying to put it all together. Compile evidence, get it all ready to go to the police. Since God knows they can’t do any solid detective work themselves.”

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